OF EUROPES GREATS... 7 complete in 1973 when they beaten Juventus 1 -0 in Belgrade with Johnny Rep scoring. Cruyff was the star and the inspiration, but he was surrounded with many fine players Wim Suurbier, Rudi Krol, Arie Haan, Gerrie Muhren (older brother of Arnold), Johan Neeskens, Johnny Rep and Piet Keizer. Their trademark was the total football system which involved taking advantage of a generation of skillful footballers whose versitily and football intelligence allowed a bewildering inter-change of positioning. It was style which nearly earned the Dutch national side the games highest prize. But the national side, built around the Ajax stars, lost both the World Cup Finals of 1974 and 1978 and the great days were over. The greatest days for Ajax had ended in the summer of 1973 when Cruyff left to join Michels at Barcelona for then a world record £922,000 transfer fee. A year later Johan Neeskens joined Cruyff at Barcelona. They were knocked out of Europe in the first round as they went for four in a row. At the end of season 1973-74 all they had to show was the European Super Cup after thrashing AC Milan 6-1 on aggregate. The next few years were to be a quiet period at European level by Ajax standards although at home they lifted he title in 1977, 1979 and 1980 and the cup in 1979. They began to introduce more world class players such as Arnesan and Lerby. It took the home coming of Johan Cruyff to begin the 1 980's revival. That was in December 1981 when he returned from U.S.A. where he played for Los Angeles Aztecs, New York Cosmos and Washington Diplomats in the NASL. When Cruyff returned, Ajax were trailing PSV Eindhoven in the league but by the end of the season they won the league by five points and Cruyff inspired Ajax to a Dutch league scoring record of 117 goals with Wim Keift scoring 32 of them. With the prodigal son as the new leader, Ajax retained their title, their 21st in all, and completed the double for the 4th time. But the spectre of the great 70's teams hung over Ajax and they failed to make an impact in Europe going out to Celtic in the first round despite having players in the calibre of Frank Rijkaard, Jan Molby, Jesper Olsen, Wim Kieft and Gerald Vanenburg. At the end of season 1982-83, Johan Cruyff moved to rivals Feyenoord to finish his playing carrer. The promising youngsters moved on and Ajax began to bring yet another group of promising youngsters through. Players like Marco Van Basten helped Ajax to the League title in seasonn 1984-85 but the most significant event of the year was made by the board who appointed Johan Cruyff as Technical Director. Ajax won the cup the following season when they defeated Roosendaal 3-0 and this set them up for a European run. They ended a 14 year wait when a goal from Marco Van Basten gave them victory over East German side Lokomotiv Leipzig. At home they retained the Dutch Cup with a victory over Den Haag but this final raised fears of violence because of riots that had occurred in the league meetings between the two sides. For this reason it was very difficult to find a city willing to stage the final. The KNVB even considered playing the final behind closed doors but the Mayor of The Hague allowed of 8,500. In the league they finished runners-up to PSV Eindhoven. Johan Cruyff lead his side to the Cup Winners Cup Final for the second year in a row in season 1987-88 but they lost their title to the unknown Belgian side KV Mechelen. ruyff decided to move to Barcelona in the summer of 1988 and this signalled yet another rebuilding job for Ajax. Season 1988-89 started disastrously under new boss Kurt Linder but then Splitz Kohn took over as caretaker manager and did an excellent job in starting to rebuid the Ajax side which finished runners-up to PSV Eindhoven. However, then Ajax decided to appoint Leo Beenhakker as Technical Director after he was released as boss of Real Madrid. Leo Benhakker saw the opportunity to take Ajax back to the top amongst Europe's elite but his dreams faded when the hooliganism problem which seems to be ruining Dutch football raised its ugly head during their U.E.F.A. Cup first round, second leg tie with Austria Vienna. During extra time the match had to be abandoned following several incidents in which an assortment of missiles were thrown at the Austrian goalkeeper. Ajax have since been banned for a season from European football by U.E.F.A. and as we will all see tonight, Europe will be without some of the most skillful players in Dutch football next season. PROGRAMME EDITOR: ANDREW H. SMITH CONTRIBUTORS: Tom McGouran, Bob MacDonald, Martin Jordan, David Williamson (Edin. No. 1 Ajax Supporters Club) and thanks to Ajax for photos and information.

AJAX ARCHIEF

Programmaboekjes (vanaf 1934) | 1989 | | pagina 7